New Team, New Chance, Same Desire

Bavarro A Hit With Browns

Bavaro Determined To Play It Again

August 12, 1992|By GREG GARBER; Courant Staff Writer

MADISON, N.J. — It was last fall, when the acne-faced quarterbacks at Dominick Savio High School in East Boston, Mass., would send passes arcing into his still-soft hands, that Mark Bavaro began to wonder. He wondered if, perhaps, there was some more football left in his massive, scarred body.

"It got me thinking," Bavaro said Tuesday, in a homecoming of sorts at the Giants' training camp at the Madison branch of Fairleigh Dickinson University. "I crammed a long career into six seasons. It was a lot of fun. But the more I thought about it, the more I wanted to try it again.

"So here I am."

The difference, of course, is that Bavaro, 29, now plays tight end for the Cleveland Browns. He has two Super Bowl rings, two Pro Bowls and 296 catches from his tenure with the Giants, but they waived him for medical reasons in an awkward first day of training camp a year ago. After a year of rehabilitation, Bavaro signed with the Browns and coach Bill Belichick, who, facing a dearth of talent at tight end, gave Bavaro a second chance.

Bavaro, looking a little strange in Cleveland's orange-and-brown uniform (No. 48, not No. 89), worked against the Giants in preparation for an exhibition game Saturday. Under the thunder and lightning, he looked good. Bavaro usually practices only once a day, instead of the standard two, in an attempt to come back to speed gradually.

"I don't think you can call it a comeback until I make it through the season," said Bavaro, facing a handful of television cameras and 35 newspaper writers. "There's still a good chance I could go home any day. I'm day to day."

In truth, Bavaro and the Browns are ecstatic over Bavaro's progress. In 1990, he rarely practiced but played in 15 games for the Giants, catching 33 passes for 393 yards. He was outstanding in the playoffs, catching 13 passes, many of them critical, as the Giants won Super Bowl XXV, beating Buffalo, 20-19.

Now, he runs easily and his 6-foot-4, 245-pound body hasn't

forgotten how to block. In an exhibition game against Atlanta Saturday -- the Browns won, 7-0 -- a bruising block by Bavaro sprang running back Leroy Hoard to score from 34 yards out. He also made a typically Bavaroesque catch and run for 20 yards.

Bavaro -- whose threshold of pain is legendary -- said he lives with the throbbing aches of tendinitis and arthritis, but that it's tolerable. Moreover, he said, he is not risking a debilitating injury. This isn't what he was told by the Giants a year ago.

Faced with a seriously deteriorating left knee -- it was racked by avascular necrosis, the same bone-deadening condition that afflicted Bo Jackson -- Bavaro believed Giants physician Russell Warren when he told him his career was over.

Bavaro offered to take only half of his 1991 contract worth $750,000 and rehabilitate the knee. His goal was to return this season to play for the other $375,000. The Giants declined and gave him $65,000 for injury compensation. Privately, Bavaro was hurt, though later the Giants did pay him $375,000.

"It was a business decision," Bavaro said. "There were no bitter feelings."

But when a piece of bone was grafted from his hip onto the affected joint, Bavaro began feeling frisky. He visited a few Boston-area doctors who told him there was a chance he still could play. There was never a chance that Bavaro would come back with the Giants.

Belichick, who rarely gushes publicly, is trying to restrain his enthusiasm. "I think he looks as good -- well, it's the best I've seen him since the 1989 season," said Belichick, who then was the Giants' defensive coordinator.

"We're just trying to improve the team, and he can help us. In his prime, I don't think there was any question he was as good as there was at his position."

The Giants say they are happy for Bavaro, but seeing Bavaro move so easily Tuesday had to leave them wincing.

"Our medical people never said he couldn't play," Giants coach Ray Handley said. "They said he shouldn't play. Mark knows the extent of the injury and the pain he has to deal with. If he does play, we wish him the best."

And that is the real question here: Will the knee hold up? So far, so good.

"I'm exactly on schedule since I'm still here," Bavaro said. "In the middle of the season my goal will be to still be here. What are my standards? I don't know because I don't know what I'm capable of.

"I learned from those high school kids. They made me realize it was just a game. It's supposed to be fun. If I do play, even now, I will try to have fun. More so than when I played with the Giants."

Giants won't trade Simms Since Saturday, when San Diego quarterback John Friesz was lost for the season with a knee injury, there has been speculation that Giants quarterback Phil Simms is headed for the Chargers. Not so, Giants owner Wellington Mara said Tuesday.

Mara strode into the press room and, clearly agitated, said: "Phil Simms is not being traded ... this year, last year or in the 20th century. To San Diego or anyplace else. Period. OK?" Simms, 36, who recently signed a one-year contract worth $1.6 million,

will back up Jeff Hostetler again this season. ... The Giants and Browns practiced together for two hours, moving from positional drills to a series of lively (if sodden) 11-on-11 sessions. ... The Giants placed free agent safety Thom Kaumeyer (torn knee ligaments) on injured reserve and waived free agent nose tackle Micah Haley. ... Offensive tackle John "Jumbo" Elliott (bulging back disk) may practice later this week and wide receiver Ed McCaffery (bruised shoulder) is awaiting results of a magnetic resonance imaging